'According to the critics, there is a 'democracy bias' in current research that results from the fact that the researchers presume that the spread of democracy is more closely interrelated with the assumptions of modernization theory than it actually is. However, the facts show that while the number of democracies has continuously increased, autocracies, single party regimes, monarchies and military regimes have also evolved into limited multiparty systems. One of the main criteria of regime stability is the joint legitimacy granted by the people. The main sources of empirical legitimacy are socio - economic success and an ideology that enhances hegemonic development. A lack of legitimacy is the decisive criterion indicating the collapse of any kind of regime. However, the timing of the collapse also depends on additional features of the structural, institutional and cultural context. Among these, the constellation of actors in relation to the opposing elites is of particular importance.' (author's abstract)|